BARI. The National Labor Inspectorate has suspended the proceedings on some doctors from the Bari Polyclinic, fined for working beyond the permitted limit during the pandemic period. The inspection action carried out was started by the territorial Inspectorate following reports made by an autonomous trade union association to complain about the lack of rest and the exceeding of the maximum working hours of medical staff during 2021. We read in a note from Ministry of Labour.
The Inspectorate will proceed, in the next few days, with further investigations to evaluate the cancellation of the sanctions imposed. This was announced by the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, Marina Calderone, who in the morning had a telephone conversation with the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, to whom she reported the ongoing activities. Minister Calderone will meet the president of the National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists, Filippo Anelli, at the ministry on 24 October.
History
What happened to Vito Procacci, director of the Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medicine operational unit of the Policlinico university hospital of Bari, was surreal. For the work carried out during the emergency linked to Covid he received a fine together with other head doctors for the excess of work done. Faced with such a clearly unjust sanction, Procacci wrote a letter to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to express “bitterness, disappointment and dismay at the treatment received from a State that I love but in which today I struggle to recognize myself”.
In the letter Procacci says that he and the colleagues most involved during the Covid emergency received a “heavy and paradoxical fine” from the Labor Inspectorate, in his case of 27,100 euros – and 10 thousand euros in total against two others primary doctors – for “having fulfilled our inevitable duty as healthcare workers” in a facility, the Polyclinic of Bari, which in that period “managed to save the lives of approximately 8,600 patients, 1,600 of whom were mechanically ventilated”. Their fault, the doctor underlines, was “not having respected the prescribed rest periods at the time and having worked more than the scheduled hours”. The fine therefore does not refer to overtime and has been challenged in the appropriate forums, assures the head doctor (and so the Polyclinic itself has decided to do), but «it still remains a deep wound because that fine of 27,100 euros is a serious offense not only for me, but for the entire category of emergency and emergency medicine doctors and healthcare workers that I represent.” Procacci expects “answers” from President Mattarella. «For two years during the pandemic – he says – I didn’t see my family, I lived isolated from my loved ones for fear of infecting them. And, most seriously, I was unable to attend my daughter’s graduation. Now I’m being repaid like this.”
After two consecutive nights spent in the ward, the head physician finally had the time yesterday to publish the letter on his Facebook profile with a post that begins like this: «Yesterday Heroes, today Violators». To AdnKronos he confirms that he is “offended” and adds what has been increasingly evident in recent times: “Then let’s not be surprised if young people desert the emergency medicine specialization schools, which are increasingly less attractive. The emergency rooms are understaffed, there is an enormous workload and we do not have any type of professional or economic development. Result? 70% of emergency medicine scholarships have not been awarded in universities across Italy. Young people choose other paths, and we find ourselves under blackmail from cooperative doctors.” The head physician received the solidarity of many. Filippo Anelli, president of the Medical Association, assured that he will hear from the Minister of Labor «because a sanction «for having worked too much in a moment of emergency» is not acceptable».
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